With a barometric pressure of only 1005mb and a ferocious North- easterly tearing through the air, all seemed futile. But, twas bank holiday night, and the chance of a big carp never passed my mind.
So, grabbing all the gear we could find, headed for the nearest big-carp water. It was a new lake for us, and, as always on a new lake, simple tactics prevail. Out went two rods each, one with a single 15mm Nash tuti-fruitti and the other with a popped up strawberry 15mm. These were fished over a large, widespread bed of spod mix with all the goodies. Groats, halibut g/b, SB carp method mix, hemp, chilli hemp, tigernuts, tigernut extract and 2 tins of tuna. Enough to get any carp into a feeding frenzy.
As the night drew to a close, not a single beep on the microns showed these large, astute creatures were growing harder to tempt. Out went last casts, and down for the night. I soon realised my cheap, and not very reliable so called "bivvy" could not cope with the force 8 gales and terrential rain when it took off into the lake half way through the night. Could
As the sound of a woodpecker carving a new apartment out of the overgrown forest that lay behind woke me from my rest, a rumble of my, largely overgrown ;), stomach signalled fried egg on toast. As Bobby untangled his misguided rig from the marginal reeds, he stumbled apon a bed of freshwater clams. I thought, if these clams are spread across the lake, then the carp surely will be feeding with these. A quick simmer in the kettle soon opened up the clams.
So out went a hooked clam on a size four between the two mid-lake islands and we sat and waited.
Although we didnt have one of the elusive big carp, we tried a new tactic and had a few small, but unfortunate runs on the clam rigs. The long journey home came too soon, as we left empty handed and for me, bivvy-less.
